Crushes.

This is Josh Adamson ... Josh is my most recent crush. Adorable, or what?!?!?!

I tried to look up the word crush in the dictionary and it isn't even listed ... at least not in the context that I am referring to here. Online, they referred me to the "slang" dictionary. I was just wondering where the term originated - I still don't know.

But for me, the word crush means someone you like to look at. Someone you see and they bring a smile to your face. Someone who you just like to be near ... and just because. You think they are cute, you think they are someone you want to know or be with, but not really - yeah?

See, for me, when I have a crush on someone, I know that they aren't really someone that I could, in reality be with. And for different reasons too. Like the crush on the guy in high school, who, for me, was Chip Diggins. (I know, what a name ... Chip Diggins ... it's like I seriously made it up just to make this story sound better - but I didn't.)

Chip was my biggest crush of all time. He took on celebrity status for me. He was tall, had an athletic build, had long dark curly hair, a really cute smile ... I went speechless in his presence. (Hard to believe for those of you who know me, but it was true.) And I think that was because he took my breath away ... I would see him from a distance in the cooridoor at school and go still inside, in anticipation of him passing by me.

I would watch him but then not look at him when he got close - you know, in case he happened to glance at me, and then if I was looking at him, he might wonder why I was looking at him.

There might have been a time or two when I was bold enough to keep looking, and he did smile and say hi ... my heart was always pounding so hard, I wondered if he might have heard it.

I should not even admit this, but I was walking in the school parking lot during lunch one day with my friend, Delanie. I saw his car and said, "I just want to sit in it." She dared me, as she often did, and I decided to do it. I walked up to the car, opened the door and got in. I even took a little something - and I won't tell what it was, I will just say it was something paper.

Oh, I was a crazy teenager - but in a good, innocent kind of way. (C'mon, getting in his car was about as wild and crazy as I got!) I just wish I had gotten his autograph and my picture with him ... just kidding. Sort of.

I have a crush on President Dieter F. Uchtdorf too, who is in the first presidency of our church. I saw him a few years ago at The Festival of Trees. He was there with his wife and I just had to say hello. He took my hand, introduced me to his wife, said how pleased he was to meet me, and asked me about my family. (Now he really did look like a movie star. Terribly handsome, and so sweet.)

But I need to tell you who Josh is, don't I? Josh was in the plays down at the Tuacahn Theater in St. George this past summer. Chloe was in them too, so after we saw Footloose, I went up to him and introduced myself and talked to him for quite a while about Chloe and her plan, and what he had done as he pursued his career in the musical theater world. He gave me his opinions about which direction he thought would be good for Chloe ... he was just darling, and Australian -PLEASE!!!!!

I got a little crush on him. (Josh was the male lead in AIDA a few weeks later. Chloe's friend, Trevor, said, "Your mom is really going to like Josh in this show! He has his shirt off most of the time." Trevor was right.)

I started referring to him as my boyfriend. Whenever I would talk to Chloe, I would ask how my boyfriend was and she would say, "Good. He loves you! He always asks about you and wonders when you are coming back down."

I showed McCall his picture on our camera and she said, "Wow, no wonder you like him! He has long hair and an Australian accent?!?! Which one of the guys is he?" I had to clarify that he wasn't one of the guys I was actually dating - he was in the show. I just called him my boyfriend. Then she said, "Oh, darn it."


But that's what makes it a CRUSH! And crushes are so fun to have. They just give you an extra little happy thing in your life!